


was, is, will be

by shairiru



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 05:58:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10551250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shairiru/pseuds/shairiru
Summary: Midorima's attempts in having a romantic relationship have all failed. He doesn’t find them necessary at all. But when he’s twenty-eight, single, his high school best friend just got married, and that very friend is urging him to please, please find himself someone before he shrivels all alone. . . He starts thinking that maybe, it is time.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Happy AkaMido Day!!! (I swear it's really happy this time)

There are times when you’re on your own  — standing in the middle of a busy street, watching people of different kinds pass by — that the thought of how alone you are gives you an overwhelming feeling of sadness. It doesn’t really come to mind always, but when it does, it’s an empty feeling.

 

Midorima Shintarou isn’t the type to seek company, not even a relationship. All his friends are formed by association. No one really stuck. (Except for one. Or two.) His attempts in having a romantic relationship have all failed. He doesn’t find them necessary at all. But when he’s twenty-eight, single, his high school best friend just got married, and that very friend is urging him to please, _please_ find himself someone before he shrivels all alone. . . He starts thinking that maybe, it is time.

 

He calls Takao and tells him he's ready for another one.

 

.

 

What does Midorima Shintarou look for in a partner?

 

1) Older than him. Not really too much of a gap, a year or two is fine. It’s not like he has a thing for older people. He just thinks that maturity comes with age. He doesn’t have the patience to deal with young spirits who are blinded with the notion of true love.

2) Recognizes a higher power that rules above the processes and events that occur in the world. He is a man who believes in fate ever since that one time he followed Oha-Asa and his luckiest day was recorded in the history of his life. One who thinks that things happen without the aid of fate, or luck, or fortune, can go and not be associated with him at all.

3) A good sense of humor. It’s something he lacks and realizes he actually needs from someone. It isn’t too much, but a good laugh can take a relationship to further heights, at least that’s what Takao had said.

 

.

 

The Aristocrat is a fancy restaurant located at the city center, famous for its high class meals and ambience. Only people who can afford tens of thousands of yen for a meal actually eat there. Midorima thought it would be the best place to bring the date Takao had set him up with. 

 

However, this did not help his case. 

 

Midorima is currently standing outside the restaurant, watching the retreating figure of a girl who is not fated to be with him.

 

“You really are a nice guy,” she told him moments before they parted ways, “but I’m afraid I’m not the one you’re looking for.”

 

“Takao said you have all that I’m looking for in a partner,” he laughed.

 

“I do have it all,” she joined his laughter and shook her head afterwards, “but it is a certain person I believe you want. And it’s not me.”

 

“A...certain person?”

 

“Say, do you had someone special in the past whom you’ve not been with for a long time now?” 

 

_ There is _ , he answered mentally, with his mouth clamped shut. The girl studied his expression for a while, and with a weak smile, told him one thing that confirmed his thoughts:

 

“I think you might still be attached.”

 

.

 

Evidences that Midorima Shintarou might still be attached to a certain person:

 

1) The second button of his middle school uniform which he planned to give to this certain person but never did; instead it’s stored in a box that kept other memories of his younger years.

2) The second button missing from his  _ gakuran _ which he gave this certain person years ago, together with a promise not kept true. The words sometimes still haunt him, “No matter what happens, I’ll always be by your side.”

3) A photo taken ten years ago, his arms around this certain person, both of them smiling, kept in the inner pockets of the wallet he uses everyday. There are times he would fall into temptation and take a look at it, and he can’t help but wish things are as it were before.

4) A musical score, a piano-violin duet to be exact, placed in the music rack of the grand piano in their house. Sometimes he plays it, imagining the violin part being performed by this certain person when they were still together years ago.

5) A letter, handwritten with a calligraphy pen on a special paper, containing sweet, poetic words of young love, written for him by this certain person; also kept in that box with memories from his younger years.

6) A letter, handwritten with a ballpoint pen on a white paper, its corner ruined by something liquid, containing painful words of regret and farewell, written for him by that certain person; kept under the aforementioned letter.

7) A recurring dream of an old memory. Two boys in an empty room, a  _ shogi _ board between them. He’s staring hard at the pieces when he hears a small laugh. He looks up and meets his bright red eyes. “You don’t ever give up, do you?” Midorima would answer in a whisper, “When it comes to you, I just can’t.”

 

.

 

“How you’ve managed to screw up every date I set you up still awes me, Shin-chan. Man, you need to settle down soon!”

 

“I know, I know, you’ve been telling me that for years.”

 

“Then what happened? I even fulfilled all your requirements this time, and Yoneda-san was really nice.”

 

“It’s...not her.”

 

“And what did she say?”

 

“That she’s not the one I’m looking for.”

 

“Where are you now?”

 

“Outside The Aristocrat.”

 

“Do you need me to pick you up?”

 

“No, no, I’ll be fine. I’ve bothered you enough. Now go and be a good husband.”

 

He expected his usual answer of “I always am” but instead, he hears him sigh.

 

“Shin-chan?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“You told me this once and I think you can use your own advice: follow your heart.”

 

“Isn’t that a sappy thing to say, Takao?” Midorima smiles despite himself.

 

“That’s what I do, Shin-chan,” he snickers, “Bye!”

 

“Bye.”

 

He keeps the phone in his pocket and looks around. It’s around ten in the evening and The Aristocrat is almost closing. It’s about time to go home, too. Soul searching can continue tomorrow, but now he needs to rest.

 

“Midorima?”

 

He feels like a current of electricity went through him and froze him on the spot. When he turns around, a familiar face is looking up at him, eyes as bright as they were the last time he saw them.

 

“Akashi.”

 

.

 

Who Akashi Seijuurou was

1) That certain person he never won against.

2) That certain person he used to duet with.

3) That certain person to whom he dedicated his second buttons to.

4) That certain person he wrote letters for.

5) His first love.

6) His first heartbreak.

 

.

 

The Aristocrat closed at exactly ten and so Akashi invites him to a nearby coffee place that closes at midnight. None of them were particular fans of coffee in their younger days, but med school had managed to make coffee be Midorima’s water in hell weeks. Akashi orders a simple tea.

 

“It’s been quite some time,” Akashi tells him. “I didn’t think we’d meet at The Aristocrat, of all places.”

 

“Yeah...I was meeting someone. How about you?”

 

“I just closed a deal with a big-time client. Been courting them for months now.”

 

“Congratulations, then.”

 

“Thanks,” he smiles. “How have you been? I haven’t heard from you in a long time.”

 

“I really haven’t been in touch with anyone. Med school was challenging.”

 

“You survived, of course. Congratulations on the licensure examinations.”

 

“I didn’t know you knew.”

 

“I keep tabs on everyone. But I have to admit, I didn’t know everything this time,” he lays his hands on the table, palms facing up. A submissive, non-threatening gesture meant to be used for people he wants to talk with. “Mind filling me in?”

 

.

 

What happened within the six years they’ve been apart:

 

1) Midorima entered med school. Akashi went to the US for his MBA.

2) They slowly lost time for each other.

3) Akashi called Midorima to break up. It was a mutual agreement.

4) Midorima received a mail from Akashi, a letter containing more words than what they had exchanged through the phone. The letter made the break-up final for him. He cried in his room while reading it.

5) Midorima had been set up on a blind date by Takao for approximately a dozen times. Akashi had a relationship once.

6) Out of the dozen blind dates, only one progressed into a real relationship. It only lasted for six months. Akashi’s lasted for about a year before he broke up with the girl. It was headed into a break-up anyway, and he didn’t want to be the one left behind.

7) Since they hit twenty-five years of age, the topic of marriage has frequented family conversations. They have both declined profusely.

8) Midorima picked up painting. Akashi picked up golf and bowling.

9) Midorima topped the licensure examinations. Akashi runs half of the companies his family owns.

10) They haven’t forgotten about each other. (This they did not say out loud)

 

.

 

“The girl you were with earlier, she looks good for you,” Akashi tells him as they walk back to the parking lot for their own cars.

 

“We’re not..together. It was another blind date set up by Takao.”

 

“You looked like you enjoyed yourself, though. Are you sure you don’t want to pursue a relationship with her?” 

 

“Yoneda-san is a great woman, but even she knows that we’re not going to work as a couple. She told me that she’s not the one I’m looking for.”

 

“And does this Yoneda-san know what you’re looking for exactly?”

 

Both of them have reached Midorima’s car and Midorima knows he has to say goodbye in a moment. He considers lying and telling Akashi that Yoneda-san told him nothing more. In fact, it is what he has been planning to say but then, he opens his mouth and the words leave him before he could even hold them back.

 

“She told me I’m still attached to a person special to me for a long time.”

 

Akashi is silent for a moment, his eyes staring straight ahead. When he exhales, a small puff of cloud forms.

 

“Are you?”

 

“I am.”

 

Akashi turns then. He smiles; it is warm and beautiful. When he reaches for the taller male’s face, fingers trembling, Midorima feels his heart skip a beat. Akashi’s thumb caresses his cheek, and a shiver runs down his spine.

 

“I bet that if I talked to her,” his voice is in a low whisper, “she’d say the same thing about me.”

 

Takao has told him to go and follow his heart. 

 

In that moment, it’s telling him to take Akashi in his arms and kiss him for all those years they’ve missed together. To close the space between them and fill it with their bodies, fitting together like they did before.

 

And so, he does.

 

.

 

What Akashi Seijuurou is not:

 

1) Older than Midorima. They are born in the same year, but Midorima is born in July, Akashi in December. Akashi is about five months younger than Midorima, but this does not make him any less mature than him.

2) A believer of a higher power. Akashi Seijuurou has always been a man who believed in no one’s power but his alone. Back at Teikou, he raised an eyebrow when he found out Midorima’s belief in horoscopes, but did not say anything against it. He can tolerate that, at least.

3) A man with a good sense of humor. No one talks about Akashi’s jokes. First, they’re not funny. Second, even Akashi himself becomes embarrassed after delivering his jokes, thus not talking about them has been somewhat a common courtesy. There was this joke about sodium and tuna. Midorima thinks it is Akashi’s best yet.

 

.

 

Takao is at loss for words when Midorima visits him one day with Akashi in tow. It has been months since his last blind date and he has never really heard any update from Midorima. He welcomes them in his home, accepting the gifts they brought for the baby shower. 

 

“How long?” Takao asks him when they have a moment alone. He watches as Akashi talks to his wife as if they’re old friends. He has not seen him for a long time, but Midorima definitely looks much happier.

 

“Since the last blind date.”

 

“And have you talked about what happened to the two of you before?”

 

“We’ve talked about everything. It’s all fine now, I guess. I’m happy, he’s happy. There’s no pressure. He’s not leaving anytime soon, and any issues we’ve had in the past, we’re fixing it little by little.”

 

“Is this going to last long?”

 

“I want it to.”

 

“You know, Shin-chan, I didn’t think you were looking for someone all these years. I think it’s _him_ you needed all along.”

 

Midorima looks around and finds Akashi’s eyes. They smile at each other momentarily before Akashi resumes his conversation with Takao’s wife. 

 

Somehow, it never stops feeling like all the stars and planets align when he and Akashi are together.

 

“I just realized that, too.”

 

.

 

Who Akashi Seijuurou is:

 

  1. That certain person Midorima sees himself together with for a long time to come.




End file.
